Old Town: The Heartbeat of Goleta

Old Town: The Heartbeat of Goleta

The Neighborhood That Puts the ‘Good’ in Goodland

By Indy Staff | November 12, 2026

Long before Goleta became an incorporated city in 2002, there was “Old Town.” The stretch of Hollister Avenue between Kellogg and Fairview serves as the center of commerce, culture, and community for Goleta locals, and it’s a neighborhood that’s managed to hold onto and celebrate its past while at the same time embracing the new businesses on the block.

Reminders of the past are everywhere: an old “S&H Green Stamps” sign on the side of Santa Cruz Market, old blacksmith shops repurposed for modern industrial and commercial businesses, the rusted “La Esmeralda Market” sign that still hangs above the entrance at Oat Bakery.

The buildings themselves have “good bones,” and they hold plenty of memories for the generations of Goletans who recall running errands, shopping at classic department stores, or visiting one of the many bars, restaurants, barber shops, and beauty salons of the past. Today, the district has survived decades of ups and downs, and the development of more modern shopping centers such as Calle Real and Camino Real, which put a strain on many Old Town businesses.

Still, Old Town is full of historic heavy hitters — such as the first-ever Hamburger Habit location — sitting alongside hidden gems such as Plunder Thrift and neighborhood favorites such as La Tapatia Bakery #3 and Domingo’s Café. Mechanics and auto-parts shops still give the place a hardworking character, though these days they’re also working alongside new-age bakeries and alleyway screenprinting shops.

This week, the Independent is highlighting a small sample of places that make Old Town Goleta so special. By no means is this a comprehensive list (we’d love to hear about your favorite Old Town spots), but we hope it can show just how much soul you can find in Goleta’s oldest neighborhood.

El Rodeo

A few years ago, when I was invited to go on my first-ever horseback ride in Refugio Canyon, it seemed like the type of thing that required proper attire. I used the occasion as an excuse to pop into El Rodeo, a little western wear store that has occupied the corner of Hollister and Pine Avenue since 2012 whose front window is stacked with Mexican ranchero cowboy gear.

It’s a small space that, like much of Old Town Goleta, carries a long history. The building itself is nearly a century old, and it housed a department store in its heyday before finding new life as a number of neighborhood shops and now, El Rodeo.

Owner Rafael Fonseca uses every inch he can, packing every wall and corner of the shop with everything a vaquero might need: leather boots and belts, cowboy shirts, jeans, hats, and high-quality Mexican clothing and accessories for everyone from kids to grandparents. The friendly service, comforting smell of leather, and wide range of options make El Rodeo the go-to for bona fide cowboys and for folks (like me) who just want true Western wear for horseback riding, concerts, or Fiesta celebrations.

You can lose track of time browsing El Rodeo; it’s easy to get swept up in all the different choices. Do you want to be a flashy cowboy with a brightly colored shirt, silver belt buckle, and snakeskin boots? Or a rugged ranch hand with blue jeans and a denim work shirt? Whatever your cowboy dreams, you can make them come true at El Rodeo. —Ryan P. Cruz

5798 Hollister Ave.; (805) 683-4243

The Control Lab

There was a time when gaming meant going to somebody’s house, firing up the TV, and hunkering down for some serious score-setting. No headsets, no online matchmaking. Just two controllers, lots of snacks, and a friend insisting their D-pad is broken.

For those of us who grew up video gaming in the ’90s, that world can feel awfully far away. The Control Lab, tucked behind 5860 Hollister Avenue in Old Town Goleta, offers a route back. The independently owned shop buys, sells, and trades new and retro games, keeping older consoles in circulation alongside their modern descendants.

The business started as an Old Town thrift store in 2013 that eventually evolved into a destination for Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and Sega Genesis enthusiasts. Current owner George Diaz is brimming with knowledge and always happy to talk shop. His services include console diagnostics and repair, game cleaning, collection appraisals, and help tracking down elusive titles and systems.

While the Control Lab also offers everything from the latest Switch release to vintage collectibles, its repair chops are what really sets it apart. An old console can become an oddly personal thing, linked to a particular buddy, sibling, or summer. Getting it working again offers the possibility of picking up a game left unfinished decades ago — this time with the patience, or at least the internet access, to figure it out. —Tyler Hayden

5860 Hollister Ave. Ste. C (Back of the building); (805) 394-8257

Foundation Press

For 20 years, Foundation Press has helped Santa Barbara wear its local loyalties on its sleeves — and across its T-shirts, sweatshirts, and hats.

You might not recognize the Goleta print shop’s name, but its clients should ring plenty of bells: Dune Coffee Roasters, M.Special, Cajun Kitchen, Powell Peralta, and Toad & Co., among others. Throw in UCSB and the City of Goleta, and the client list starts to resemble a directory of South Coast life.

Owner Curtis Crawshaw launched Foundation Press in his Goleta garage in 2006. An Art Center College of Design graduate, he burned screens in the attic (the process of transferring artwork onto a fine mesh screen to create a stencil) and reclaimed them using a cut-up MarBorg trash can.

Today, the operation at 38 Depot Road in Old Town Goleta has considerably more muscle. Its automatic screen-printing presses can now produce thousands of shirts a day, but the drafting, color separating, burning, and printing all still happen under one roof.

On its menu, Foundation Press offers everything from bold, solid-color graphics to halftone shading and photo effects. For a softer finish, discharge inks remove a garment’s dye and replace it with pigment, while “puff inks” create a raised texture. Embroidery, patches, stickers, and murals extend the work beyond the T-shirt drawer.

Keeping production local is central to the shop’s philosophy. Crawshaw and his team intentionally spend on labor and materials close to home, and they use environmentally gentle chemicals, including soybean-based options whenever possible. —Tyler Hayden

38 Depot Rd.; (805) 689-6965

Oat Bakery

Sitting right off Hollister Avenue, Oat Bakery’s lowercase blue lettering welcomes people inside for a sweet or savory treat, featuring a yummy range of buns and loaves in a pastry case and a toast-centric kitchen serving breakfast and lunch. Its outdoor patio, featuring umbrellas and picnic tables, invites people to sit down and savor it.

Still hanging over the awning is a memory: a rusted sign that says “La Esmeralda Market,” a remnant of the location’s previous incarnation. Co-owner and general manager Sheldon Chu said they kept it up to honor the shop’s history and because they liked the vintage feel of it.

The Old Town storefront, the second of Oat Bakery’s three locations, opened in 2022. Chu said the thing that sets it apart from its sister locations is the food. It’s unique, she said, and “very seasonal,” made using ingredients Chu herself sources from the farmers’ market every Tuesday. “We really play with the seasons on the menu,” she said.

“There’s not too many bakeries in the area in general,” Chu said, nor many outdoor spaces for families to gather and enjoy lunch. Oat Bakery fills that niche well. “It’s a good place for community,” she said.

Her favorite thing on the menu right now is the serrano basil braised beans (try saying that three times fast), made with heirloom lima beans, serrano basil vinaigrette, cherry tomatoes, and herbs served on sourdough toast with butter. They usually sell out every day — try it while the season’s right. —Callie Fausey

231 Magnolia Ave.; (805) 845-4300

Old Town Coffee

Old Town Coffee, which opened its doors in 2018, may be one of Old Town’s younger businesses, but it quickly found its place in the small-town community. Madison and Malcolm Ward run the show now, following their parents’ move to the East Coast. But the coffee shop remains very much a family business.

Madison Ward said she is a fifth-generation Goletan and takes pride in Old Town Coffee being the one-stop shop for locals to “get going for the day.” Everyone from UCSB students to the owners of surrounding businesses come there for their daily cup of joe, made using beans roasted in house. It’s easy to make the shop a second home, a place to pop in or hang out.

“Students come in here for the first time during their sophomore year, and then two years later, they show up with their parents, and they’re like, ‘It’s our graduation day,’” Ward said. “I think that’s really special.”

She said she sometimes feels like she’s in a “small-town movie.” She can wave to the barbers across the street, who have cut generations of her family’s hair. She knows the people working down the street by name.

“It’s a synchronistic kind of thing,” she said. “I oddly know when people take their breaks and when they are late to work. I think we’re just, like, a spoke in the whole wheel.”

The coffee, which they started roasting in 2020 with help from David Dart of Dart Coffee, is delicious in whatever form you prefer. The food is, too: Burritos and sandwiches are sourced from Outpost Tea and Coffee in Isla Vista, and the baked goods come from various local bakeries and an at-home pastry chef named Messy the Baker (who makes banging pumpkin bread).

But Ward’s favorite thing is the shop’s Gibraltar (also known as a cortado): “I go to bed thinking about my Gibraltar in the morning,” she laughed. —Callie Fausey

5877 Hollister Ave.; (805) 845-4300 

Paperback Alley

Like many used bookstores, Paperback Alley demonstrates yet again that lightning still strikes and in beautiful,  improbable ways. Not only that, the little bookshop, located under one of Old Town’s architecturally defining alcoves, has managed to stay quietly but stubbornly alive for 58 years now. 

Since 1998, the store has been run by Ruta Safranavicius, who landed in Santa Barbara accidentally on purpose in 1991, when her home country of Lithuania had just declared its independence from what was still left of the Soviet Union. For the first time, Lithuanians were free to travel at will, so, with her freedom finally at hand, she shrugged and asked herself, “Why not?”

“We never could before. I figure I needed to take advantage of it.” At that time, Safranavicius was just 27, and she knew of the South Coast due to a famous Lithuanian opera singer who had settled in Montecito after WWII, drawing in her wake enough fellow Lithuanians to constitute a close-knit community. One such Lithuanian lived right next door to the Paperback Alley’s previous owner, a bigger-than-life personality named Shannon Rose. 

Safranavicius needed a job, and Rose needed help around the store. After an introduction from Rose’s Lithuanian neighbor, Safranavicius came in for a visit when Rose suddenly announced, “Okay, you’re hired.” Safranavicius made it work. “I just learned!” she said with a laugh, throwing her arms up into the air. “I am still learning.”

As used bookstores go, Paperback Alley — with its oxblood-red painted concrete floors, skylight, and old-school fluorescent lights — is a study in carefully curated chaos. Abundance and order are balanced nicely. For those seeking a time travel portal or a black hole in which to lose one’s self, there’s pretty much everything, from classics to mysteries to the new generation’s romance novels, the romantasy genre.

Old Town is ever-changing, and the universe of books and publishing is changing, too. Amazon, Kindles, and e-books have not been kind to book publishers, yet Paperback Alley — quietly and charmingly defiant, still remains. 
—Nick Welsh

5840 Hollister Ave.; (805) 967-1051

Velo Pro Cyclery

There’s not a whiff of bike snobbery at Velo Pro’s Old Town Goleta Shop, on the corner of Hollister and Orange Avenue. It’s a decidedly down-home shop — some have even described the interior as “a little wrinkled” — where customer service is delivered sooner rather than later.

Let’s say you need some obscure speckle-sized grommet to latch your pannier so you can haul groceries in your battle-worn bike rack. Within five minutes, an Allen-headed grommet is found, and screwed in. Problem solved. Your old bag is given new life. 

You won’t see much Lycra in Velo Pro these days, though when its mothership first opened back in 1984, it was one of the first shops to sell it. Back then, there were at least two dozen bike shops between Goleta and Montecito, and Velo Pro — started by a 23-year-old elite road racer fresh from UCSB named Daryl Abrams — was conceived to cater to the unmet needs of the road racers. 

In the intervening years, Abrams — a precociously gifted entrepreneur endowed with the just-do-it impulsivity of a person accustomed to seeing around corners — moved the shop to new digs: an old bank, where it’s been since 1991.

For many riders, bikes aren’t a lifestyle choice so much as a matter of economic reality. They’re transportation. Bikes showing up at the shop with more rust than paint are treated with respect — at Velo Pro, it’s about keeping the wheels rolling safe and sound, not so much about selling the latest model. Though there’s plenty of new models — road bikes, gravel bikes, kids’ bikes with streamers and training wheels, a few tricked-out full-suspension mountain bikes, urban commuters with enough whimsy to attract first-year UCSB students, and, of course, e-bikes. Lots of e-bikes. Did you know Velo Pro was selling e-bikes as far back as the ’90s? —Nick Welsh

5587 Hollister Ave.; (805) 964-8355

Goleta Boys & Girls Club

Incorporating education, recreation and mentorship, the Goleta Boys & Girls Club is woven into the fabric of Old
Town Goleta.

With a rich legacy of providing hope and opportunity to local youth, the Boys & Girls Club continues to offer
essential programming that enriches the lives of young people day after day and year after year.

“The Boys & Girls Club has always been a safe space for kids to go to whenever they need us, whether that’s after
school, during the summer, or during school vacations,” said Melinda Cabrera, CEO of United Boys & Girls Clubs
of Santa Barbara County. “We are a constant source of support for kids, providing a safe place where they can play
sports, benefit from positive adult mentorship, build friendships with their peers, and explore new activities, such as
STEM, computer lab activities and games.”

One of the sports programs currently underway in Goleta is indoor soccer. A primary goal of the Goleta Boys &
Girls Club is to respond to the needs and interests of the community. Other activities offered include esports and the
College and Career Bound program for teens.

“We always want to be relevant, and that’s really important when you are working with kids,” Cabrera said. “We
are bringing in new things all the time.”

A source of pride for the Goleta Boys & Girls Club is its rich history of successful collegiate and professional
basketball players among its alumni. These include former UCLA basketball coach Ben Howland, whose name
appears on the gym floor in Goleta. —Victor Bryant

5701 Hollister Ave.; (805) 967-1612

Centennial Beer Hall

Nearly 70 years of memories, spills, and stories told over a pint live within the walls of 5871 Hollister Avenue, or, as you’ll know it today, Centennial Beer Hall. You can still see a wisp of the past above the back entrance, with a preserved 1957 sign dating back to the original establishment, Gus’s Cocktails. In 1995, the building stepped into its next chapter with the opening of Mercury Lounge, or, as locals called it, “The Red Door,” due to its minimal signage and distinctive unmarked entrance. After 26 years, their door closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It just so happened that around that time in the spring of 2021, Ron Batdorf (owner of Centennial Beer Hall) was setting out to fulfill a longtime dream of owning his own bar and caught wind that Mercury Lounge’s owners, Jennifer and Patrick Housh, were selling. He “quickly realized that the space and its rich history in the community was the perfect opportunity” to bring Centennial Beer Hall to life.

Five years later, Centennial has settled into its own neighborhood gathering place with a spotlight on independent American brews and rotating food pop-ups. On any given day, you’ll find locals, students and visitors celebrating or simply enjoying each other’s company. The faces may have changed through the years, but the building’s role as a place to gather carries on. It’s what Ron set out to create: a third space that “brings people together around a shared love of excellent beer and enriches the community.” —Olivia Ison

5871 Hollister Ave.; (805) 324-4724

Blue Blossoms

Blue Blossoms floral shop is the kind of place that leaves you feeling a little lighter and more grounded than when you walk in. Despite its laid-back California feel, Blue Blossoms’ roots trace back to Latvia, where owner Ingrid Kraukle and her daughter, shop founder Laura Goycochea, grew up. In Latvia, they often forage for wildflowers beside their river home and would create everything from flower crowns to bouquets for friends’ and family celebrations. In 2017, they transformed their passion into a brick-and-mortar shop and opened Blue Blossoms in Old Town Goleta.

Lead floral designer and studio manager Kiara Jackson offered a peek into a process that they call “talking with the flowers”: noticing seasonal blooms as well as following the natural shapes of the stems and letting the flower guide the arrangement. That philosophy extends beyond their studio, through their recycling program where leftover flowers and greenery are transformed into mini bouquets and delivered to Handlebar Coffee Roasters on Canon Perdido on Saturday mornings for the community to take home free of charge. They hope to encourage “others to pay it forward by gifting a bouquet to someone, whether it’s a close friend or a stranger on the street.” Since launch, Blue Blossoms has given away more than 12,000 bouquets through this initiative, leaving hearts happy and homes smelling beautiful throughout Santa Barbara. —Olivia Ison

5878 Hollister Ave.; (805) 689-8438

Pepe’s Mexican Restaurant

For almost 70 years, families have flocked to Pepe’s Mexican Restaurant for enchiladas, chimichangas, chile verde, and a wide-ranging menu of homey and homemade dishes. Their loyalty was tested in 2020, when a disastrous kitchen fire triggered years of repairs. But when Pepe’s reopened in November 2022, the regulars rolled back in with delight.

“We’re lucky because of our long-term, established clientele,” said fourth-generation owner Osiris Castellanos. “People have memories of being here with their grandparents, or with their dad. There’s a nostalgia element. There’s a local pride element. It’s a place where you can bring your kids and they can throw rice around and no one cares. It’s laid-back.”

This Goleta story actually begins in Carpinteria, where Christina Delgado opened a Mexican market in 1947 to serve the growing bracero and farmworker communities. They sold tortillas and masa to La Esmeralda Market in Old Town Goleta, which became Pepe’s in 1958. In 1964, the Delgado/Castellano clan took over Pepe’s, and have owned it ever since. (The Carp location became Delgado’s Mexican Restaurant, which they still also own today.)

“The big thing was our chile verde,” said Castellanos of what made Pepe’s popular. “We grow our own chiles for that.” They continue to do so on a family ranch in Santa Margarita, where they harvested 10,000 pounds of guerito peppers this year. Castellanos plans to start growing corn there next year to support the family’s masa business. 

Now eight years on the job, Castellanos is following in the footsteps of his father, Art Jr., who’d been running the shows — they manage Delgado’s too — since the early 1980s. Now with a 9-month-old boy at home, said Castellanos, “Generation five is coming in.” —Matt Kettmann 

254 Orange Ave.; (805) 967-0313

Oriental Market

The first thing you may notice about the Oriental Market’s proprietors, Tomas and Sandra Hernandez, is that they aren’t Asian. “You figured that out,” laughed Tomas, who came to Santa Barbara from Guatemala City in 1985, working as a gardener, taxi cab driver, and bookkeeper before getting into markets. “I have done so many things in my life.”

He and Sandra, who is from Veracruz, Mexico, bought this market seven years ago from So Van Le, a Vietnamese entrepreneur who first opened more than three decades ago a few blocks closer to the airport. The Hernandezes — who now live in Oxnard and also once co-owned the Los Amigos Market on Santa Barbara’s Westside — are sticking to Le’s formula for the Oriental Market.

“We decided to keep it as is because of the international students,” said Tomas of his main clientele, though the road realignment and lack of parking has slowed business. “When people are looking for something quick, it’s not easy,” he said.

With 95 percent of his customers being Asian, Tomas enjoys a unique lens onto which cultures are coming and going in the area, such as many Filipinos recently leaving yet more Thai people seeming to arrive. Amid a wide array of pan-Asian and a few Central American offerings, the popular items tend to be sauces, snacks, and even ice cream styles that people can’t find elsewhere.

“People like us because we have so many different cultures,” said Tomas, who also sells quite a bit to Noodle City next door. “He’s one of our main buyers.” —Matt Kettmann

5863 Hollister Ave.; (805) 683-4417

Alpha Thrift Store

Alpha Thrift Store Goleta has operated for more than a decade and adds to the Old Town character by offering
stylish, affordable goods while supporting Santa Barbara County’s social work.

The thrift shop is part of an initiative that began in the ’60s to raise money for the Alpha Resource Center, an
organization whose mission is to empower individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. After
originally having a couple of locations on State Street, in 2006, the org expanded to add the 23,000-square-foot
Goleta location. Alpha Resource Center provides adult day programs, family support, and special education in the
school district. The thrift shop helps with funding and covering part of the costs of running its programs.
Beyond social work, Alpha Thrift Shop offers great-value treasures that keep textile waste out of landfills and
give clothes and other items a second life. They carry clothing and shoes — the most popular items — along with
household goods, electronics, sporting goods, and more.

Alpha Thrift Shop Goleta offers a great starting point for a day in Old Town Goleta and adds to the area’s thrifting
culture. —Diego Melgoza

5624 Hollister Ave.; (805) 964-1123

Goleta Barbers

When Pete Jimenez took over Goleta Barbers from Steven Vargas, he had to promise to keep the name the same “because it’s a place for the community,” he was told, not for any one individual to put their name on the door. That was 25 years ago last February, and Jimenez took the mentoring he gained from Vargas to heart.

“We’d call it the poor man’s country club,” Jimenez said — and his laid-back shop is a comfortable place to come hang out, share your problems, vent about the day, or revisit the history that decorates the walls. He recalled a couple of brothers who stopped by to check him out when Vargas let it be known that there was going to be a new owner. “They were proud of the Old Town here. Steve told me I’d never be my own boss because all my clients are my employers, all 20,000 of them,” Pete said, laughing.

He’s the fourth owner of a shop that first opened in the 1930s, now in the spot that was once the bus station, on the sunny side of the street. The concrete still has divots from the old bench in front of the window where people would wait for the next ride out of town. A painted wooden sign that says “peluqueria” still hangs from the eaves.

Just down the way is the bookstore the barbers walk to for something to read while they wait for customers, and the market to get a cold drink with the kids. And judging by the greetings Jimenez exchanged with the folks walking by, it’s definitely part of the close-knit Old Town community.

“People come in feeling the day they’ve had, but they leave feeling good,” Jimenez said with satisfaction. —Jean Yamamura

5870 Hollister Ave.; (805) 964-3830

Lazy Eye Shop

Visitors can find Lazy Eye one short block up Pine Avenue off the main drag, and it’s so worth the detour. Curated by owner Andi Modugno, a colorful blend of vintage clothing styles and modern artisans’ artwork and jewelry greet the shopper’s eye in the spacious and open showroom of a tiny shop.

Modugno said she cultivated her style in a number of popups back in 2016, before popup markets became popular. “It was funny, but I had to explain to a lot of businesses, ‘I set up in your space and …,’ ” she said with a smile in her voice as she recalled how kind and welcoming so many business owners were. After a stint behind the popular downtown Santa Barbara watering hole Elsie’s, the Lazy Eye moved to Old Town in 2020 and to its current location last year.

“I love fun prints, bright colors, and florals,” she explained of the eye-catching clothing — both women’s and men’s — that hung from rails in the Lazy Eye as summer turned into fall. “I’m inspired by people’s personal fashion and also what they purchase quickly in my shop. I really pay attention to that!”

The collection of local makers’ wares is an offshoot from the popup days, with scrunchies and bandanas made from hand-printed cloth, and hand-fashioned earrings and rings mingling with bathing suits and her father’s Haskell’s Designs surf and “Keep Goleta Country” T-shirts.

“My grandfather worked at Santa Cruz Market since the 1980s and was a manager when the owner sold a bunch when he retired. My grandfather bought two of them, and my dad and uncles had worked there since they were 14,” she said of her family history. Her dad is Tom Modugno, a surfer who not only designs T-shirts but runs GoletaHistory.com as a passion project.

“I spent a lot of my life growing up in Old Town,” the younger Modugno said, “and it’s one reason I wanted to own a shop out here.” —Jean Yamamura

297 Pine Ave., Goleta; lazyeyeshop.com

Habit Burger

Originally known as Hamburger Habit, the restaurant opened its doors in 1969 as the first Habit Burger location in
the country, and quickly became an Old Town Goleta staple. Despite its expansion, the original restaurant has
retained much of its original character, including its original layout and outdoor patio.

Brent Reichard began working at the small restaurant in 1976. A Dos Pueblos graduate, he later left Santa Barbara
City College after a few semesters when the owners sold the business to him and his brother, Bruce, who borrowed
money from their mom to purchase Hamburger Habit.

In 2022, the brothers sold the last of their remaining eight restaurants, including the original Old Town location to
Yum! Brands. Today, the Habit Burger has grown into a national chain, with hundreds of locations across the
country.

But in Old Town, the restaurant’s charm remains intact and extends beyond its place in the chain’s history. Its
familiar layout and outdoor patio have remained, as does its connection with longtime customers.

“We have regulars, some that come in every Friday, and others that come every other day,” said Luis Mendoza,
general manager. He expressed seeing their familiar faces puts a smile on his face and reflects the sense of
community that has endured at the restaurant for decades.

“This restaurant has grown up alongside Goleta,” Mendoza said. “As Goleta and the community have expanded,
so have we. It makes me really proud.” While Habit Burger has grown nationally, its roots remain in Old Town
Goleta. —Taylor Cusimano

5735 Hollister Ave.; (805) 964-0366

Santa Cruz Market

Santa Cruz Market has remained a staple in Old Town Goleta for decades, serving customers as the community has grown and changed around it. However, its history as a grocery store is only one chapter in the story of its building. Long before it stocked groceries, the structure served a very different purpose as an airplane hangar.

In the late 1920s, Earle Ovington, recognized as the first United States air mail pilot, built the airplane hangar that would eventually become Santa Cruz Market. The structure was later dismantled and relocated to its current site in Old Town, where it initially operated as a Caterpillar tractor shop before becoming a grocery store in the mid-1950s under the name 101 Ranch Market.

The business became Santa Cruz Market in the 1970s and was purchased by Ralph Modugno in 1980. In 2024, the market was sold to Santa Barbara Markets Corp.

Although much of the structure remains intact and signature items have stayed the same, a lot has changed over the decades. “A lot changed with inflation, prices, gas, and the roads, which has caused more traffic,” said David Sandoval, one of Santa Cruz Market’s managers.

“There is a strong sense of community and history here because it has been around for a long time, and people have been coming here for years. It’s a community space, and we try our best to make our customers feel welcome,” said Sandoval. Through decades of change, Santa Cruz Market has remained a staple in Old Town. —Taylor Cusimano

5757 Hollister Ave.; (805) 967-9510 

Goleta Sushi House

One winter night, my partner and I decided to “dine in” at Goleta Sushi House in Old Town. We ordered takeout — fresh rolls and crispy katsu — from this spot at least once a month but had rarely sat down at one of its clean, no-frills tables for a meal. That night in January, darkness seemed to press on the restaurant’s bright window. Couples, friends and families chattered over the clink of bowls and glasses. Near us, someone celebrated a birthday. A sushi chef made rolls behind a crowded counter.

Goleta Sushi House owner Vinh Thi Nguyen started the restaurant twenty years ago last April. This year, the City of Goleta recognized Nguyen for her 80th birthday and her restaurant as a “cornerstone of the Goleta Community” and a place where “every guest is treated like family.” Goleta Sushi House also gained recognition from the Better Business Bureau, which called it the best sushi restaurant in Goleta. 

I’m not surprised this place is such a staple: The sushi tastes fresh and flavorful, the menu varies while keeping the classics, and the people who run this place do so with efficiency and care. It has a special place in my heart, too. 

—Christina McDermott

5744 Hollister Ave.; (805) 683-8724

Goleta Community Center

The Goleta Community Center began its life back in 1927 as Goleta Union School, and happens to be where I
graduated 6th grade. I have vivid memories of my time there: growing alfalfa with my kindergarten class, then
eating it on buttered bread, ringing the school bell with a rope like Quasimodo, checking out The Wonderful World of
Oz at the library (only to realize it’s nothing like the movie), standing on the front steps for graduation day, and of
course, having The Hamburger Habit right next door.

The school closed in 1976 and was leased to the county to operate as a community center in 1984, when the county sublet the property to the Goleta Valley Community Center before it was later acquired by the city of Goleta.

Today the center serves as a space for childcare and tutoring, weddings and quinceañeras, dance studios, and a robust senior program offering movement and stretching classes, ping-pong, line dancing, and yoga. It also sponsors a Senior Nutrition Program with the food bank, offering free, nutritious lunches on weekdays and a supplemental grocery program for low-income seniors.

The gazebo and front lawn of the Community Center are a prominent focal point and a town square of sorts that’s become a place for free summer concerts, civic and public announcements, and seasonal celebrations.
“Every community needs a focal point that is accessible to all. And through its various incarnations over the years, the Goleta Community Center has served this vital purpose,” Goleta Councilmember James Kyiaraco noted. “It’s the historic heart of Goleta’s cultural and educational past and home to Old Town’s vital future.” —Terry Ortega

5679 Hollister Ave; (805) 967-1237

Linda West Cello

When customers walk into the unassuming corner building space at 70 South Kellogg Avenue, the first thing that strikes them is the high ceilings, which reverberate the vibrations of cello strings through the workshop and showroom lined with cellos. Relocating to the airy Goleta shop from Santa Barbara in 2023 was a “blessing in disguise,” said shop owner Linda West.

West, a Santa Barbara local, wasn’t always into cellos. As a sculpture artist and Santa Barbara City College bronze casting and metal fabrication instructor, West began tinkering with her daughter’s cello, swapping strings, and “next thing I know, I’m doing a new bridge, a new tail piece, new end pin,” she said.

That tinkering blossomed into a full-time cello repair, rental, sales, and bow-making business serving the local community as well as clients from across the country and around the world. In the early days, “all the cello income was going toward my daughter’s music education,” who ended up majoring in cello performance in college.

Now, more than 20 years later, West continues to hone her cello repair and bow-making craft — expanding out to violins and violas — and has created affordable options for folks who are interested in trying an instrument. “We’re not a snobby shop, we try to make people feel welcome,” said West. —Elaine Sanders

70 S. Kellogg Ave., Ste. 1; (805) 448-9174 (call for appointment)